Integrating media content analysis, reception analysis, and media effects studies

Every day, the world of media is at our fingertips, whether it is watching movies, listening to the radio, or browsing online media. On average, people spend over 8 h per day consuming messages from the mass media, amounting to a total lifetime dose of more than 20 years in which conceptual content stimulates our brains. Effects from this flood of information range from short-term attention bursts (e.g., by breaking news features or viral ‘memes’) to life-long memories (e.g., of one’s favorite childhood movie), and from micro-level impacts on an individual’s memory, attitudes, and behaviors to macro-level effects on nations or generations. The modern study of media’s influence on society dates back to the 1940s. This body of mass communication scholarship has largely asked, “what is media’s effect on the individual?” Around the time of the cognitive revolution, media psychologists began to ask, “what cognitive processes are involved in media processing?” More recently, neuroimaging researchers started using real-life media as stimuli to examine perception and cognition under more natural conditions. Such research asks: “what can media tell us about brain function?” With some exceptions, these bodies of scholarship often talk past each other. An integration offers new insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms through which media affect single individuals and entire audiences. However, this endeavor faces the same challenges as all interdisciplinary approaches: Researchers with different backgrounds have different levels of expertise, goals, and foci. For instance, neuroimaging researchers label media stimuli as “naturalistic” although they are in many ways rather artificial. Similarly, media experts are typically unfamiliar with the brain. Neither media creators nor neuroscientifically oriented researchers approach media effects from a social scientific perspective, which is the domain of yet another species. In this article, we provide an overview of approaches and traditions to studying media, and we review the emerging literature that aims to connect these streams. We introduce an organizing scheme that connects the causal paths from media content → brain responses → media effects and discuss network control theory as a promising framework to integrate media content, reception, and effects analyses

Measuring the effects of co-location on emotion perception in shared virtual environments: An ecological perspective

Inferring emotions from others’ non-verbal behavior is a pervasive and fundamental task in social interactions. Typically, real-life encounters imply the co-location of interactants, i.e., their embodiment within a shared spatial-temporal continuum in which the trajectories of the interaction partner’s Expressive Body Movement (EBM) create mutual social affordances. Shared Virtual Environments (SVEs) and Virtual Characters (VCs) are increasingly used to study social perception, allowing to reconcile experimental stimulus control with ecological validity. However, it remains unclear whether display modalities that enable co-presence have an impact on observers responses to VCs’ expressive behaviors. Drawing upon ecological approaches to social perception, we reasoned that sharing the space with a VC should amplify affordances as compared to a screen display, and consequently alter observers’ perceptions of EBM in terms of judgment certainty, hit rates, perceived expressive qualities (arousal and valence), and resulting approach and avoidance tendencies. In a between-subject design, we compared the perception of 54 10-s animations of VCs performing three daily activities (painting, mopping, sanding) in three emotional states (angry, happy, sad)—either displayed in 3D as a co-located VC moving in shared space, or as a 2D replay on a screen that was also placed in the SVEs. Results confirm the effective experimental control of the variable of interest, showing that perceived co-presence was significantly affected by the display modality, while perceived realism and immersion showed no difference. Spatial presence and social presence showed marginal effects. Results suggest that the display modality had a minimal effect on emotion perception. A weak effect was found for the expression “happy,” for which unbiased hit rates were higher in the 3D condition. Importantly, low hit rates were observed for all three emotion categories. However, observers judgments significantly correlated for category assignment and across all rating dimensions, indicating universal decoding principles. While category assignment was erroneous, though, ratings of valence and arousal were consistent with expectations derived from emotion theory. The study demonstrates the value of animated VCs in emotion perception studies and raises new questions regarding the validity of category-based emotion recognition measures

First Impressions of HIV Risk: It Takes Only Milliseconds to Scan a Stranger

Research indicates that many people do not use condoms consistently but instead rely on intuition to identify sexual partners high at risk for HIV infection. The present studies examined neural correlates for first impressions of HIV risk and determined the association of perceived HIV risk with other trait characteristics. Participants were presented with 120 self-portraits retrieved from a popular online photo-sharing community (www.flickr.com). Factor analysis of various explicit ratings of trait characteristics yielded two orthogonal factors: (1) a ‘valence-approach’ factor encompassing perceived attractiveness, healthiness, valence, and approach tendencies, and (2) a ‘safeness’ factor, entailing judgments of HIV risk, trustworthiness, and responsibility. These findings suggest that HIV risk ratings systematically relate to cardinal features of a high-risk HIV stereotype. Furthermore, event-related brain potential recordings revealed neural correlates of first impressions about HIV risk. Target persons perceived as risky elicited a differential brain response in a time window from 220–340 ms and an increased late positive potential in a time window from 350–700 ms compared to those perceived as safe. These data suggest that impressions about HIV risk can be formed in a split second and despite a lack of information about the actual risk profile. Findings of neural correlates of risk impressions and their relationship to key features of the HIV risk stereotype are discussed in the context of the ‘risk as feelings’ theory

Effects of Food Deprivation on Visual Perception: An ERP-Study

Ziel dieser ERP-Studie war die Untersuchung motivationaler Einflüsse auf die frühe visuelle Verarbeitung. In einem Versuchsdesign mit Messwiederholung erschienen 32 Versuchspersonen zweimal zur EEG-Messung, einmal hungrig und einmal satt. Hunger wurde operationalisiert als 24-stündige Nahrungsdeprivation. Mit einem 256-Kanal-EEG wurden ereigniskorrelierte Potentiale abgeleitet während die Versuchspersonen Bilder von Essen und Blumen betrachteten, die mit einer Darbietungsgeschwindigkeit von 660 ms präsentiert wurden. Aufbauend auf Überlegungen zur Theorie der motivierten Aufmerksamkeit wurde eine selektive Aufmerksamkeitslenkung auf motivational relevante Nahrungsreize im Hungerzustand erwartet. Diese sollte sich in ERP-Komponenten zeigen, von denen aus der Emotionsforschung bekannt ist, dass sie mit selektiven Aufmerksamkeitsprozessen in Verbindung stehen. Für die Blumenbilder, die den Status einer neutralen Vergleichskategorie hatten, wurde keine von der Nahrungsdeprivation abhängige Aufmerksamkeitslenkung erwartet. In einem weiteren Versuchsteil wurden emotionale Bilder dargeboten, um die Abhängigkeit der bei der emotionalen Bildbetrachtung etablierten Effekte vom Deprivationszustand überprüfen zu können. Wie erwartet zeigten sich in den ereigniskorrelierten Potentialen auf emotionale Bilder bei beiden Messterminen eine frühe posteriore Negativierung sowie eine späte zentrale Positivierung. Beide Maße korrelierten zwischen beiden Messungen überaus hoch miteinander. Die Effekte selektiver Verarbeitung von motivational relevanten Reizen fielen insgesamt schwächer aus als die aus der Emotionsforschung bekannten Effekte. In einer explorativen Analyse wird ein selektiver Prozess untersucht, der in Form von verstärkten Positivierungen auf Nahrungsbilder im Hungerzustand bilateral über parieto-okzipitalen Arealen zu beobachten war. Die Befunde werden in Bezug zur Theorie der motivierten Aufmerksamkeit interpretiert und vor einem evolutionspsycholo-gischen Hintergrund diskutiert

Intuitive Risikowahrnehmung - Eine neurowissenschaftliche Perspektive

Recent theoretical models of risk perception emphasize the role of intuitive and affective processes. Empirical evidence, however, remains scarce. In the present dissertation event-related brain potentials (ERP) are used as a sensitive tool to shed light on the role of intuition in health risk perception. Three studies are presented in which participants viewed pictures of unknown persons in the context of a HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) risk perception paradigm while ERPs were recorded. This strategy enabled the demonstration of key processing characteristics of intuition: speed, affective evaluation, and implicitness. In the first study, participants judged the HIV risk of 120 persons based on facial appearance. Results showed enlarged positive brain potentials for risky faces in a time window from 350 - 650 ms. The second study added important evidence by showing that these results are not confined to facial stimuli. Using naturalistic photographs of real persons that resemble real life encounters and pictures used on internet dating platforms, it was established that risky persons prompt larger LPPs (late positive potentials), starting after approximately 300 ms. Based on the results of these two studies it is concluded that HIV risk of unknown persons is assessed intuitively. Discriminating among risky and safe stimuli in a split second provides strong evidence for intuitive processing regarding the key characteristic of speed. Furthermore, both studies provided supportive evidence for affective evaluation, another hallmark feature of intuitive processing. Risky stimuli were associated with enlarged LPPs, a component known to be sensitive to the intrinsic affective relevance of stimuli. The third study incorporated an implicit condition, allowing risk-related processing differences to be assessed in the absence of external task demands pertaining to HIV risk judgment. By showing that ERPs from the implicit condition - obtained during a quick glimpse and with no intention to evaluate risk - are related to later reports of HIV risk, these results provide strong evidence for the intuitive and incidental character of risk perception, another key feature of intuition. Moreover, ERP results from a subsequent explicit condition replicated previous findings, providing additional evidence for the intuitive features of speed and affective evaluation.Considering previous findings in affective neuroscience, it is proposed that persons judged as risky already attain a higher saliency early on during information processing and guide selective attention processes. These findings have implications for theoretical models of health risk perception and point to intuitive influences in everyday health risk perception

An attitude network analysis of post-national citizenship identities.

How are evaluative reactions pertaining post-national citizenship identities interrelated and what are the potential mechanisms how post-national identities evolve? Previous efforts to operationalize and measure post-national citizenship identities leave it open how people's stances on different issues are related and suffer from a variety of theoretical and methodological shortcomings regarding the nature of political attitudes and ideologies. A recently proposed approach conceptualizes ideologies as networks of causally connected evaluative reactions to individual issues. Individual evaluative reactions form the nodes in a network model, and these nodes can influence each other via linked edges, thereby giving rise to a dynamic thoughts system of networked political and identity-related views. To examine this system at large, we apply network analysis to data from the European Values Study. Specifically, we investigate 33 evaluative reactions regarding national and supra-national identity, diversity, global empathy, global environmentalism, immigration, and supra-national politics. The results reveal a strongly connected network of citizenship identity-related attitudes. A community analysis reveals larger clusters of strongly related evaluative reactions, which are connected via bridges and hub nodes. Centrality analysis identifies evaluative reactions that are strategically positioned in the network, and network simulations indicate that persuasion attempts targeted at such nodes have greater potential to influence the larger citizenship identity than changes of more peripheral attitude nodes. We lastly show that socio-demographic characteristics are not only associated with the overall level of post-national citizenship, but also with the network structure, suggesting that these structural differences can affect the network function as people develop national or post-national citizenship identities, or respond to external events. These results provide new insights into the structure of post-national identities and the mechanism how post-national identities might evolve. We end with a discussion of future opportunities to study networked attitudes in the context of civic and citizenship education

Integrating media content analysis, reception analysis, and media effects studies.

Every day, the world of media is at our fingertips, whether it is watching movies, listening to the radio, or browsing online media. On average, people spend over 8 h per day consuming messages from the mass media, amounting to a total lifetime dose of more than 20 years in which conceptual content stimulates our brains. Effects from this flood of information range from short-term attention bursts (e.g., by breaking news features or viral 'memes') to life-long memories (e.g., of one's favorite childhood movie), and from micro-level impacts on an individual's memory, attitudes, and behaviors to macro-level effects on nations or generations. The modern study of media's influence on society dates back to the 1940s. This body of mass communication scholarship has largely asked, "what is media's effect on the individual?" Around the time of the cognitive revolution, media psychologists began to ask, "what cognitive processes are involved in media processing?" More recently, neuroimaging researchers started using real-life media as stimuli to examine perception and cognition under more natural conditions. Such research asks: "what can media tell us about brain function?" With some exceptions, these bodies of scholarship often talk past each other. An integration offers new insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms through which media affect single individuals and entire audiences. However, this endeavor faces the same challenges as all interdisciplinary approaches: Researchers with different backgrounds have different levels of expertise, goals, and foci. For instance, neuroimaging researchers label media stimuli as "naturalistic" although they are in many ways rather artificial. Similarly, media experts are typically unfamiliar with the brain. Neither media creators nor neuroscientifically oriented researchers approach media effects from a social scientific perspective, which is the domain of yet another species. In this article, we provide an overview of approaches and traditions to studying media, and we review the emerging literature that aims to connect these streams. We introduce an organizing scheme that connects the causal paths from media content → brain responses → media effects and discuss network control theory as a promising framework to integrate media content, reception, and effects analyses

A Character Recognition Tool for Automatic Detection of Social Characters in Visual Media Content

Content analysis is the go-to method for understanding how social characters, such as public figures or movie characters, are portrayed in media messages. It is an indispensable method to investigate character-related media processes and effects. However, conducting large-scale content-analytic studies is a taxing and expensive endeavor that requires hours of coder training and incurs substantial costs. This problem is particularly acute for video-based media, where coders often have to exert extensive time and energy to watch and interpret dynamic content. Here we present a Character-Recognition-Tool (CRT) that enables communication scholars to quickly process large amounts of video data to identify occurrences of specific predefined characters using facial recognition and matching. This paper presents the CRT and provides evidence for its validity. The CRT can automate the coding process of on-screen characters while following recommendations that computational tools be scalable, adaptable for novice programmers, and open source to allow for replication

Neural correlates of perceived risk : the case of HIV

Research indicates that many people do not use condoms consistently but rather rely on illusory control strategies for avoiding an infection with HIV. Preliminary evidence suggests that people form impressions of a partner's HIV risk based on his or her physical appearance. To examine the neural correlates of such appearance-based HIV risk impressions, event-related potentials were recorded while participants viewed portraits of unacquainted persons. Participants' explicit HIV risk ratings for each of the presented unacquainted persons were used to form categories of low and high HIV risk persons. Results showed that risky, compared to safe persons elicited distinct event-related potential (ERP) modulations. Viewing risky persons was associated with an increased positivity over right frontal regions between 180 and 240 ms. This suggests that impressions related to HIV risk occur rapidly, presumably reflecting automatic person evaluations eluding introspection. In a time window between 450 and 600 ms, risky persons elicited an increased late positive potential. Consistent with previous findings reporting augmented late positive potentials (LPP) amplitudes to affectively significant stimuli, the results support the assumption that risky faces draw more attention resources. These findings are in accordance with the "risk as feeling" notion

Explicit semantic stimulus categorization interferes with implicit emotion processing

Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related brain potential studies revealed that performing a cognitive task may suppress the preferential processing of emotional stimuli. However, these studies utilized simple and artificial tasks (i.e. letter, shape or orientation discrimination tasks), unfamiliar to the participants. The present event-related potential study examined the emotion–attention interaction in the context of a comparably more natural scene categorization task. Deciding whether a natural scene contains an animal or not is a familiar and meaningful task to the participants and presumed to require little attentional resources. The task images were presented centrally and were overlaid upon emotional or neutral background pictures. Thus, implicit emotion and explicit semantic categorization may compete for processing resources in neural regions implicated in object recognition. Additionally, participants passively viewed the same stimulus materials without the demand to categorize task images. Significant interactions between task condition and emotional picture valence were observed for the occipital negativity and late positive potential. In the passive viewing condition, emotional background images elicited an increased occipital negativity followed by an increased late positive potential. In contrast, during the animal-/non-animal-categorization task, emotional modulation effects were replaced by strong target categorization effects. These results suggest that explicit semantic categorization interferes with implicit emotion processing when both processes compete for shared resources